March 10, 2025

Oscars 2025: The Oscars took place last Sunday, and I have to admit that the results were more than a little surprising. I had felt overall that the films generally for 2024 for these awards were not a strong as in previous years. I don’t think, despite the results, there was no clear cut Best Picture. For me, as a theatrical release, I think that the Best Picture to see in the theatres would be Dune Part II, as a visual spectacle it was stunning. As a story, I think that Conclave was more compelling in width and breadth, and in terms of gravity of a story that Nickel Boys was the most substantial. One could argue that The Brutalist also was an Oscar-worthy movie overall, for me I found it too long, with the second half weaker than the first. Anora I suspect was viewed by most on a television screen or smaller monitor. But as a story, it was quite pedestrian.

From Kieran Culkin to Mikey Madison, Wicked for Cinematography and others I was feeling that the Academy missed the mark, in a Shakepeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan kind of way from 1999. My brother, who won my Oscar Pool for the third time in a row summed it up well after his win with “Voting for and giving away awards to movies hardly anyone has seen, and no one will care about in the future”. I have been losing faith in the Academy over the past few years, and so with any art, one has to simply enjoy what we enjoy, and not worry about awards. I do think that nominations are good, as someone who saw ALL Best Picture nominees and it got me to see a really great surprise with Nickel Boys and also I’m Still Here. I would not have seen this otherwise.

Joker: Folie a Deux: I had heard all of the negative press about this movie and the almost universal condemnation of this sequel to the original Joker (2020) with Joaquin Phoenix in the Oscar winning performance, so I had avoided it. But recently on an airplane, it was on and I decided to watch. For me, I was scratching my head as to the whole concept for the film itself. From the “That’s Entertainment” song ringing in my ears, to the trial of Arthur Fleck at the television appearance in the original, and the pushing and pulling of Fleck versus The Joker as distinct persons living in the same body. One of my first observations was the weight loss from Phoenix and how utterly scary it was.

Next I thought, ‘what a tragedy to lose all that weight for this movie”. Just because you have added Lady Gaga to the cast, doesn’t mean that you should be making the film a musical, or even having musical numbers added. I can appreciate that she can sing, but it doesn’t move the story along really. Rather, for Phoenix, who is not a singer (not in a Russell Crowe (Les Miserables) or Pierce Brosnan (Mamma Mia) level of bad) and he did the biopic for Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, but this wasn’t good for him nor the character.

Then the trial aspect is explored with Fleck speaking with his lawyer, talking about multiple personality disorder and whether his troubled past made him not aware of the actions that he was taking. Enter Lady Gaga, Harley Quinn, as fellow inmate in Arkham, who seeks him out because of his actions on TV, as well as a made-for-TV movie that is referred to about the live air shooting. His fame and following is enticing for her. She disagrees with the legal defense of “I was not of sound mind when I did these acts” but thinks he needs to show his more chaotic personality, intent on tearing down the State from the outside. The singing continues with various numbers some of which are in dream states for Fleck. It is all rather confusing. Since her breakout performance in the re-make A Star is Born, Gaga has struggled with following it up with House of Gucci and this performance. Neither of which were compelling. Of course THIS Joker was never meant to be in the Christopher Nolan Batman universe. Other than being in the DC Universe, and having Harvey Dent as prosecutor, it really has nothing to do with it. The original was a turn on the Scorsese film The King of Comedy, right down to Robert Deniro, but this without the same underpinnings has lost its way, and floats in a no man’s land of obscurity never really finding out what the main message and the story should be. Maybe, those who are media sensations can also fall from grace just a quickly as they arrived. The mob doesn’t want realism, they want sensationalism. When you don’t deliver, you are dismissed. There are other stories that can can tell that tale better. In short, I agree with the negative reviews and I cannot recommend this.

January 27, 2025

Oscar Nominations: The Oscar nominations have been released this past week with some notable snubs. For me, the biggest snub remains Sairose Ronan for The Outrun. It seems not enough people saw it. But the lack of nomination for the performance especially given the next review from Anora is a head scratcher. I was also surprised with Denis Villeneuve not being acknowledged for Dune Part 2 which was better than the first film. Edward Berger also was not nominated for Best Director either for Conclave. Kate Winslet was not nominated for Lee. I have to admit that I am pleased that Pam Anderson, Nicole Kidman, and Selena Gomez were not nominated. Overall I see 2024 as a thin year for quality movies. The long listing of Best Picture nominees of which I have seen eight of the ten nominees, for me, truly only has two or three legitimate contenders. Those would include Conclave (my personal favourite), The Brutalist and Dune Part 2. In years to come the movie most people will come back to watch multiple times likely with be Dune Part 2. We’ll see if this is another year where a more artsy film like Bird Man, or The Artist wins over the more compelling and entertaining film.

Anora: I watched this movie this past weekend. It has received six Oscar nominations including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Director, screenplay and editing. One would think that this would be excellent entertainment. In short, I don’t see it.

As a story it is a tale set in NYC about a young female exotic dancer from Brooklyn, played by Mickey Madison, who one night meets up with an equally young Russian male customer. She is requested by the club manager to meet this guy because she speaks Russian. She meets the young man, named Ivan, and his buddy and turns on the charm. He likes her and manages to spend time and money with her and hopes to see her some more. She meets Ivan away from the club and they do what adults do.

The young people party, have fun and head to Vegas. On a whim, Ivan proposes to her. They head to a chapel and get married. For Anora (she calls herself Ani) the wedding is her ticket to a life of leisure with no money worries, and at her age the money is the primary factor for being interested. This is a transaction. So it seems. The news of the Ivan’s wedding is not welcome to his oligarch father and mother. The parents are back in Russia, but they have an older Armenian man overseeing the young man in NYC. He didn’t know about the trip to Vegas. Like Ivan’s Mom he is furious and see Ivan being married to a “prostitute” as a very bad thing for the reputation of the family. The Armenian overseer sends his men to talk to Ivan and confirm the news about the marriage back at his house in NYC. It doesn’t go well. Ivan has been watched by this overseer for most of his life. Apparently he has been a handful. He manages to elude the henchmen and the overseer and they need to find him in NYC. Good luck. In the end there are some funny situational moments, but this is really a simple story. There is plenty of nudity. None of the acting struck me as particularly effective. Anora was perhaps the best. The nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Yurily Borisov, is particularly surprising as he doesn’t say anything for the first half of the movie. He is present with Anora but not interacting much. He is the muscle on the team, along with the overseer’s bearded brother. Only later does he have much to contribute. There is a great deal of yelling. A lot of profanity. Not a lot happens. An eventful long weekend for Ivan ends fairly predictably as the spoiled, entitled man has his parents fix what he has created. It’s not the first time and most certainly won’t be the last.
The ending can be interpreted in different ways. I think Anora’s final reaction stems from her finally feeling some real feelings, with no ulterior motives or transaction in the balance. Maybe it was the reaction from the culmination of a series of dramatic events? When the movie ended my reaction was “is that it?” It is hard to compare a movie like this or The Substance with a movie like Conclave or The Brutalist. The former are over-the-top and tongue in cheek while the others are more dramatic and seriously told. I cannot recommend this movie despite all the award nominations.

November 18, 2024

The Outrun: A few weeks back I had written about Conclave, that I felt that I had seen the Best Actor Oscar Winner for this year with Ralph Fiennes. After seeing this new release from Producer Saoirse Ronan and her husband Jack Lowden, directed by Nora Fingscheidt, I think that I can say that I have seen the Best Actress Oscar Winner too. In some ways, it feels like having watched Emma Stone in Poor Things last year.

I will say up front that this is not an easy watch. Set in Scotland, based on the true story novel of the same name (released in 2015), the film tells the story of a young woman Rona (Ronan) and her life and lifestyle. She is a woman with an alcohol addiction problem, and you see her tell her story in reverse from the moment when she realized that she had reached rock bottom and wanted to make a change. As the story reveals itself, we see that a very young Rona grew up in a household where father had his own issues and these impacted her, and her Mom as the marriage fell apart. She managed to get away to London where she fully enjoyed the partying lifestyle in London. The drinking, the loud music, the quick hook ups all contribute to her perception that these are really good times. What she can’t recall is that as she drinks more, she becomes an angry, belligerent drunk. So her memories are selective. She struggles as we see that she had many issues stacked against her. She chooses to leave London, and go back to Scotland where she finds a home for herself on the Orkney Islands on the northern tip of Scotland. It is a solo life, in a small hut where she can detox herself, but also become closer to nature. Temptations arise, and this is no surprise when you live in a pub culture within the UK (Scotland as well as Ireland and England). She also gets to better develop her love for the ocean, and the marine biology degree that she has achieved earlier. There are moments in her struggle where I stated audibly “don’t do it”.

I like Ronan as an actor/actress. I think she is one of the most versatile and talented actors of her generation. For that, she already before starting has me hoping for the best for her. Then this character and her struggles, she shows that she needs help, is vulnerable, and is looking for some direction. As an acting performance, there are physical elements, showing yourself to be impaired but also her interactions among family, friends and romantic interests. Her range of emotion is wide from anger and rage, to crying and seeking foregiveness, to kindness and showing her interaction with people. She is a high functioning drunk, but it doesn’t take away from the allure for her addiction. I sympathize as a parent, but also for any person who is fighting with addiction. I can’t imagine not feeling satisfaction or joy from life without the adding of any substance. Others have played people with alcohol issues and done well with Oscar like Nic Cage (1996 Leaving Las Vegas) or Jessica Lange (1994 Blue Sky) or Elizabeth Taylor (1966 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). There are many, many more. This is worth viewing, and I expect will be mentioned often between now and March 2, 2025.

The Penguin: I finished watching on Crave this limited series. I feel as though it got better and better as it went on. As it went on, I think I became to cheer more for the Cristin Milioti character, Sofia Falcone. The Penguin, Oswald Cobblepot aka Oz Cobb, played excellently by the unrecognizable Colin Farrell, it not a likeable character. He loves one thing in life, which is his Mom, and he is dedicated to a promise to provide her with a better life. To that end, he will do anything. He has no conscience. He became the middleman in a mob war, and was a driver for the young Sofia Falcone when she was young. He is trying to make it on his own, by having the warring mobs destroy one another.

The final episode brings the story full circle. There are some good plot twists and changes in momentum. Those who have been paying attention will see where it will end up going, but the avenues taken are not those that you might have expected. I think the acting and story were first rate. It ties well into the Robert Pattinson The Batman series which will have a second installment released in October 2026. This is worth checking out.

March 18, 2024

Oscars 2024: Post the Oscar awards from a week ago, I have a couple of thoughts about it. First and foremost I want to send out congratulations to my son Wade on his victory in the fun pool. He bested two-time defending champion, my older brother Scott. Well done to both of you in anticpating the whims of the Academy. Wade had 33 out of possible 40 points, correctly predicting every major category. Scott was 2 points back.

As to the awards itself, I was very pleased that Christopher Nolan finally got the recognition of his work from the Academy. He is one of the best directors presently with a considerable and impressive body of work. His work on the Best Picture Oppenheimer shows off his skills so well. I am a fan. I see his movies in IMAX which he insists on filming in. The film had 13 moninations and won seven awards: including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.).

Christopher Nolan with Producer/Wife/Partner Emma Thomas

If you follow the X/Twitter verse, there were plenty of people expecting that Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon would win. I will admit, and have readily admitted here, that I am not a fan of Emma Stone. However, having seen her performance in Poor Things, I had to admit that this was the performance of the year. Emma Stone is choosing very good projects, and her acting has developped and grown over the past few years. She chooses challenging roles, which in no way are mainstream. Can you imagine Meryl Streep or Sally Field (multiple Oscar winners) doing the scenes in Poor Things? Maybe it’s part of the younger Hollywood, because already this year we have multiple winner Jennifer Lawrence doing similar in her film No Hard Feelings. But there seems to be a willingness to be more open certainly with nudity. The same situation occurred with Barry Keoghan in Saltlick, in case you were thinking that this is just a female trend. Can you see Tom Hanks or Daniel Day-Lewis performing all those scenes in that role? Viggo Mortensen yes, but not them. Anyway, it was a gutsy, physical performance as well showed a character who obviously is made up, but she brings it life. I was also very pleased to see that The Zone of Interest won for Best International Film. It is such a commentary on the ability for people to block out the every day things that, however horrendous, become the everyday. You see characters care more for plants in their garden than the multitudes of human beings who a slaughtered on a daily basis literally beside their house. Why does it matter? Because there is a commentary around the world of people willing to overlook events taking place nearby. Other people are regarded as unimportant and basically non-human allowing for them to be ignored and not worthy of empathy. So this year passes and we get back to what 2024 has for us and the 2025 Oscars next year.

Outlander: Many years ago, I was encouraged by a corworker at a bank to read the book Outlander by Diane Gabaldon, also a book that former sister-in-law read with earnest as soon as the latest book hit the shelves. There are currently eight volumes, with another being written, according to the Diana Gabaldon site. It is a book about a time-travelling wife/army nurse who on a trip to Scotland manages to transport herself back from the 1960s until the early 1700s Scotland, before the Jacobite uprising and battle in 1745. I found that the book was written by a woman for a mostly female audience, in similar fashion to Fifty Shades of Grey, with a lead male character capable of anything, rugged, handsome, and always at the ready sexually. Outlander is better written, without a doubt, and it has lead to the popular TV series. Still it seems a bit artifical, but fantasy is not a bad thing (male writers have been doing it for years!)

Starring the very good Catriona Balfe (as Claire Randall) and Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) there is obvious chemistry between the two main characters. There is a good supporting cast, including Tobias Menzies, who is the sympathetic first husband who has the supernatural impose itself on his life with his wife just as they are getitng started. He memorably played Prince Phillip for episodes in The Crown.

I began watching the first season soon after release in 2014. The series lost me in an intense and overly long, detailed rape scene that simply turned me off. Time passed. But then, having booked a trip to Scotland later this year, I have been told to watch the scenes if not for anything but some of the scenery in Scotland. So I chose to bypass the scenes in France from Season 2 and watched as Jamie and Claire prepared for the Battle of Culloden. However she knew the history, she and Jamie were still unable to impact the heavy hand of fate.

In any series/movie that deals with time travel, there are always challenges. I think that they do an admirable job here, even now when they are using mutliple time frames to explain what is happening with the characters in different centuries. I don’t know whether to think of Jamie as extremely lucky, he seems to avoid certain death time and again. However he also seems to be caught and tortured in various unbelieveable ways. So living may not always seem like a winning hand. Embarking into season 3 (there are now 6 seasons) there is still plenty of spicy adult content. Neither main character seems to have much concern about nudity. Naturally the reality of living in the 1700s gets lost in some ways with characters with impeccable grooming and teeth, even with a little dirt on the face and arms. As to the scenery, this series delivers well on the scenes of Scotland. The country and highlands are most definitely another character unto itself.

I will continue to watch.

March 20th, 2023

The Quiet Girl: At a time when a number of the Oscar nominees were depressing and down, like The Whale or EO, along comes this Oscar nominated entry from Ireland for Best International Picture. It is mostly in Gaelic with subtitles. It is based upon the book named “Foster” from Claire Keegan who is also a writer in the film.

Cait, is a young girl who lives in a family of modest to poor means in the early 1980s. As the movie begins, Cait is hiding from the family in the field as they search for her. You soon learn to know why. Young Mom is pregnant again, although there are already plenty of mouths to feed in the house. Dad is not exactly father of the year nor husband of the year material, if you know what I mean. Cait doesn’t say much and her actions reveal the inner turmoil that she is experiencing at home and in school. Cait’s Dad and Mom decide to send her off to spend some extended time with Mom’s cousin, who has presently no children of her own. The cousin and her husband run a dairy farm a lengthy drive away. Cait arrives and there is an awkward first meeting as she seemingly hasn’t been told what is happening. Dad absentmindedly even drives away with her suitcase. The young girl settles in and the rest of the movie is about her and her relationship with this couple.

As the title implies, much in this movie goes unsaid. Not just from the girl, but from the adults too. Everyone, as in life, has their issues to get over. Some have just had those issues longer to address. Silence can mean acceptance, but it can also be someone deep in thought or even processing how they feel at the moment. Actions say a great deal. Caring isn’t always isn’t about words, but the small acts of life. From a cookie left on a kitchen table to signify being sorry and seeking apology, to changing bedsheets or sweeping out a barn. Together it means connection. Despite what others might say or think, kindness is offering your home, your skills and resources to a virtual complete stranger, knowing that it likely won’t be welcome. I really liked this. It is a simple story well told. The ending I think is right. In a year where Best International Film is pretty much sewn up with All Quiet on the Western Front, this nevertheless is an effective story and entertaining revealing the story of this quiet, brown-haired girl.

The Last of Us – Season 1 round up: Welcome to HBO’s response to the completion of Game of Thrones with all those viewers and also those from House of the Dragon. Without repeating my introduction to the series, and how I was very reluctant to watch a series with zombies, I continue to be impressed how they overcome the zombie aspects. They are there of course, but much more of it is about human interaction, rather than humans and zombies. Our two heroes, Ellie and Joel are on a quest to find people who can help with trying to find a cure for this fungus-pandemic. What I can say is that this series builds and builds. Knowing that there will be more seasons to come, I had to wonder how they would address it.

People and their motivations stand in the way of the heroes meeting their goals. The series has nine episodes with the last one released last Sunday.

Those of you who haven’t watched so far, I would NOT recommend that you click on this back story for episode 8. I hadn’t seen these before, but I like the explanations for the episode. I have to keep reminding myself that this series is a video game with a story and scenes unto itself. Some of these are in this show, but others are not and others still are changed. In short, you don’t know what you are going to get! I am going in blind, with fresh eyes on every episode. It’s fun to watch and see where it turns. To say that the Final Episode was a surprise is an understatement. I won’t get into details here, except to say that it puts the overall story arc of being re-written or at least re-directed. I welcome it, because it means that there are many possibilities. With this series ending for a break, it is just in time for Succession to begin the last season. Kudos to HBO for keeping us entertained with good quality series back to back.

Oscars Recap: First of all, kudos for the second consecutive year for my brother to win the Oscar pool. This year he won by 1 point over Alison. Well done and really good picking. I came fourth. I think that he should be betting on his ability to predict the winners. Obviously my skills are lacking.

It wasn’t inaccurate of me to state that I felt Everything, Everywhere All At Once would have a good night at the Oscars. I just didn’t expect it to be as good as night as what eventually transpired. I had predicted Best Picture, Director and Best Supporting Actor. I called Best Supporting Actor one of the easiest calls of the night, along with All Quiet as Best International Film. I hadn’t expected Best Supporting Actress for surprised Jame Lee Curtis. Incidentally, both Best Supporting Actors gave heartfelt speeches.

There were some great outfits from people like Salma Hayek, Cara Delevigne, Jessica Chastain or Emily Blunt.

The musical performances were good generally, I missed the earlier performances by Lady Gaga gave a good live performance. She has so much talent, and dressed down decidedly for the time on stage (torn jeans and comfy top).

All Quiet on the Western Front also did very well at the Oscars. I think that the two directors from Everything, Everywhere would be fun to work with. For those of you who have actually seen the movie, we’ll see if you think it is Best Picture worthy. As I said earlier, time in my view will move on from this Best Picture which was an extravaganza for the senses, on multiple plains but hard to follow if you didn’t pay attention, and certainly not for all viewers. There were some laughs, but it is difficult to compare this type of film to others. Time will tell. I think that Jimmy Kimmel did a decent job. I always like the Matt Damon jokes.

March 28 2022

Oscars 2022: So the Oscars were last night and no one who watched from the beginning can complain that it was a boring affair. For those of you who didn’t watch, there was an altercation between Best Actor Will Smith and comedien Chris Rock on stage during the performance. Chris Rock was making a joke about GI Jane and Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith about her shaved head, and Will Smith laughed at first and then reversed and took exception going onstage, slapping with an open hand Rock and then telling Rock to keep his wife’s name out of his act.

Will Smith initially laughs and then slaps Chris Rock

I will leave it to the reader to decide whether this was put on or whether it was real. And for those who stayed to watch the rambling tearful acceptance speech from Smith himself when he won for Best Actor, you can decide. For an Award show that has lost viewership in droves, and has been called irrelevant, this type of stunt would not be beyond Hollywood! A couple of questions though: would Smith have done the same thing if one of the MCs like Amy Schumer or Wanda Sykes had done the same thing? What message about violence in our society are we giving when two men have to resort to physical violence to look to resolve their differences. For a comedian himself, Smith doesn’t have much of a sense of humour. It has been well publicized his marital issues at home. This seems to be much ado about nothing. From the still shot above, it would appear that Rock still had a smile on his face after it was slapped.

As for the rest of the night it had a few surprises in the selections. Do I think that CODA was the best film of the year? In a weak year when not much of substance was released, this was a feel-good story well told, but no I don’t. I think the movie that will be remembered from this year will be Dune. Still, perhaps the voters feel that we need more movies like CODA which is fair. Will Smith wins for Best Actor, and from the fireworks earlier in the night perhaps some voters might have wanted to change their votes. For me, I think that Andrew Garfield was robbed in his triple threat role in Tick, Tick, BOOM! Talk about taking a role outside your comfort zone, Garfield claimed to never be a singer. He was amazing. Jessica Chastain wins for portraying Tammy Faye Bakker in an award that for me was for her body of work rather than this particular role. Chastain has been doing quality work on many projects for years. She is one of the actors that I will seek out in projects. The Oscar for her work and efforts, especially in obtaining gender pay equality and having more positive roles for females in films is commendable. She worked on getting Tammy Faye made for over a decade. She made it happen, and it won two Oscars (for her and makeup). Well done Jess! Dune won many of the technical awards, and it shows that the time spent by Denis Villeneuve on making his epic look amazing was well spent. I cannot agree with Best Director in Jane Campion, but then again I didn’t like her movie, even a little bit. So I think that Kenneth Branuagh deserved this award for Belfast, and it was also my selection for Best Picture. It was good to see a much thinner Francis Ford Coppola on stage with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro to celebrate 50 years since The Godfather was released. It is a masterpiece and was followed up with a sequel that rivals any sequel as the best of its kind. Also on stage we had John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Samuel L Jackson who allowed Will Smith to use up all the profanity allowed on the forecast, but came together 28 years since Pulp Fiction was released. The effort looked forced I have to admit with the dancing, and the opening of the suitcase. Here’s hoping that the coming year has more theatre-worthy films that have more quality performances and memorable stories.

Oscar Short Films: Alison was kind enough to send along this link for me to find the Oscar short films. I did see a few of them including Robin, Robin which was cute, The Queen of Basketball, which was eye opening, and sadly reaffirmed what Cheryl Miller showed us all in the lack of pro basketball options for women in Women of Troy and the USC team there. A fine documentary.

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a39124052/how-to-watch-oscar-nominated-short-films-animation-2022/

I will say I also watched Audible, which was interesting as a young deaf football player deals with the death of a close friend and closing out his high school playing days. He is from a hearing family. So he understands the isolation and loneliness that CODA speaks about. Affairs of the Art was simply weird. There are some good drawings, but the content was strikingly different. Three Songs for Benazir was only 20 mins with dubbed in English, set in Afghanistan. It shows me just how little I know about this country and that part of the world. We are so fortunate that we have a safe, stable and secure country in which to grow and have life choices. For this young man, married and with a pregnant wife with a grade 3 education, he has the choice of joining the army or working the opium fields. Nasty. Short films generally can be hit and miss, and I would like to think that the Oscars find more hits than misses. It seems the only time of the year I will find such films is for the Oscars or in September at TIFF.

Fast and the Furious 9: Amazingly and remarkably there have been nine of these movies made in this franchise. From humble beginnings on the streets of LA where Paul Walker was asked to infiltrate a group of teens street racing, this has grown into a worldwide undertaking. It seems that the stunts and stories have become almost comical, to the point that the actors themselves call it out in the movie. “We have gone on all these crazy missions, and we don’t have a scratch on us. What does it say about us?” No kidding! There are stunts with cars in this movie that are just simply too ridiculous to believe. One involves using a bridge rope to pendulum a car from one side of a cliff to another. The other involves a Fiero going someplace that a car would not and should not ever go, or try to go. But this is really the point in many ways. They have jumped, drifted, raced, crashed a car in every way possible in this series and so what can possibly be next? I cannot recommend this. It is too Ludicrous (pun intended) to be entertaining. Thank goodness that I didn’t need to pay for it.

Not a scratch!!

Oscars Pool Link 2022

As I have done in the past, I am running an Oscar pick pool. Best Picture nominees include: “Belfast”; “CODA”; “Don’t Look Up”; “Drive My Car”; “Dune”; “King Richard”; “Licorice Pizza”; “Nightmare Alley”; “The Power of the Dog”; “West Side Story.”

I have not seen only Drive My Car, which will be remedied this week.

http://www.officepools.com/invite/pickem/m/FJ83H7Q

Please feel free to participate and share! Best of luck to those involved. Alison and my brother have done very well in past years.

May 3, 2021

Oscars 2021: I will admit that I get excited around Oscar time, which for me usually starts around the time that TIFF gets going in September. Seems the Oscar-worthy films come out for TIFF. I run an Oscar pool over the past few years for fun, and will acknowledge that my brother won last year breaking a string of victories by Alison in the process. I make a point of seeing all the nominated Best Picture nominees and many of the Best Actor and Actresses Award nominees as well. I want to be able to form my own opinion about the Films and choose my own preferred winner. This year, while I did see all nominated films, I didn’t have the energy (or enthusiasm) for the Awards. All along it felt that the best films to be released were being pushed back. No studios wanted to lose on the in-theatre revenue for these expensive films, and that is completely understandable. Money talks in this business, and after all that is why they are produced. This year’s nominees struck me, as I mentioned a few weeks back as the Plan B movies, that in most other years wouldn’t be nominated. Like a sports league, we had the minors on display, with the best players on the sidelines. Having watched most of the Best Picture nominees I was agreeing with the sentiment that overall they were down in tone. While 2020 sucked in the outside world with the pandemic, death, masks, lock downs, a bizarre election season, a riot, a police killing of a black man etc all the news was dark, dreary and depressing. In a time when we could all use a little entertainment, some fun, we didn’t get it. Where was La La Land this year? Where was Singin In The Rain, A Star is Born, Wizard of Oz or the like? There wasn’t any buzz or excitement. Sure there were some quality performances, like Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Father, for which I was thrilled that he took home the prize. But even then, it is a depressing story of an older man losing his marbles. I didn’t come away from it energized, more like thinking “this is what I potentially have to look forward to”…! I watched briefly and saw the Best Director award being given, early in the evening, a surprise in the placement since Best Director is usually one of the latest awards given out. I didn’t watch any more. I was able to watch a quick highlight reel, where I learned that as much as I like Frances McDormand and her performances, much like Jacquin Phoenix, I don’t ever want her over for dinner and a chat. (Incidentally I re-watched Fargo the other night and she is brilliant. So much fun capturing the essence of the people of Minnesota, and her own particular situation as a pregnant woman dealing with a bizarre set of circumstances. But I digress. I read about who won. I was pleased about Soul, and Hopkins as well as Daniel Kaluuya as Best Supporting Actor. Was Nomadland the Best Picture of the year? Nope. Not for me anyway. But I will turn the page and hope that at some point I can get to a theatre. I went once last year and saw Tenet in the small window we had to see films there. As we sit in the first week of May, with more Covid-19 cases than a year ago, I am not overly optimistic that we will get to a theatre this year. But I remain positive. The US is opening up, and doing a much better job with vaccines than the rest of the world. Still with over half a million dead, this makes sense. I hope we can all catch up and get back to the theatres to see the real A-list movies once again!

Justice League: Full disclosure, and those who know me know that I am generally NOT a superhero movie guy. The high water mark was the Nolan Batman trilogy for me, where Christian Bale is my Batman. No other. Not even close. I hadn’t watched Batman vs Superman which in some ways is unfortunate, since this movie follows along from that one. But you see, Ben Affleck isn’t my Batman. And the concept of a human (Batman) taking on supernatural, untouchable alien (Superman) was just ludicrous, and don’t get me started about Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor (or anything else for that matter – dude really needs to be punched in the face, and wipe off the smirk). It is a pretty short fight, all things considered. Being rich isn’t a superpower. Anyway, the rest of these movies like Ant Man, Aquaman, Doctor Strange, Iron Man et el just don’t do it for me. Cities get leveled, with goodness knows how many innocents getting crushed with no thought. The CGI computers work overtime to create the images, which in many cases don’t have the weight behind them, meaning that it doesn’t seem real. So with this background, I sat down to watch Justice League. Zach Snyder has put together a story of the formation of this “league” which brings me memories of 1970s cartoon Superfriends, and was just missing the Wonder Twins (and Robin of course)!

This movie has Batman looking to gather forces for an epic battle to come, as a cosmic bad guy and his henchman are looking to bring together three thinking rubix cubes and terrorize the world with it. You need all three in order to have the full impact. It’s about at this point as I try to distill the major plot points that one realizes just how silly it all is. Is it sillier than The Matrix, a movie and series that I genuinely like and seek out if it is on? No. That franchise has just as much or more CGI associated with it too. But it was fun and compelling and the heroes wore cooler outfits. Anyway, I managed to get through this, and still don’t see the value in Amy Adams as Lois Lane on any level. Then again, the Flash as comic relief didn’t really work much either, and I don’t need to see him again (the actor was in Trainwreck with Amy Schumer and I couldn’t help think about the bedroom scene with him and Schumer as he wants to be hit by her). I didn’t need to see this. It is 3+ hours of my life that I won’t get back. It filled a space of time. It brings more laughs honestly than anything else as my Level of Disbelief Meter goes off the charts! All this to say, if you like this genre, and need to see every superhero movie, you can likely do worse. For those with only a passing interest, then take it or leave it. As for me, there is the Robert Pattinson Batman that was delayed from the pandemic, and should hit theatres at some point when things open up. He likely will be better than Affleck (can’t really be much worse) and maybe will bring his own spin to it. Apparently, Christian Bale is perhaps going to make a guest appearance as Batman. We will see….

Exclusive: Christian Bale Is In Talks To Return As Batman

In 2014, there was a documentary about the Pamela Smart murder trial. Entitled Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart, it talks to the main issue on whether Smart was able to actually get a fair trial in this first-of-its-kind media circus. In summary, Smart was a young, pretty school teacher who manipulated three students to corner and kill her new husband. The boys were 16 and 17, and she had a sexual relationship with the one. The trial was broadcast and had detailed coverage from 1990 standards with not only mainstream news but Donaghue, Geraldo, Hard Copy etc. There have been two movies about it; a made-for-TV movie starring Helen Hunt and then the film with Nicole Kidman and Jacquin Phoenix (To Die For from 1995). When this was released, the puller of the trigger (husband was shot rather than knifed as allegedly Smart instructed to save her carpet) was not eligible for parole until 2015. Smart herself was convicted of First Degree murder and a sentence of life imprisonment with no eligibility of parole. Ironically, the boys who had copped a plea for a lesser charge of second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder are able to get parole but she is not, as she became the target for the prosecution. She maintains her innocence, and some of the evidence provided supports part of her contention. An example would include that jurors were not sequestered, each night they went home with their families. They also should watch the news and the media coverage. To think that this wouldn’t impact their view is unrealistic I would contend. Others included the transcript of a garbled hidden microphone of a conversation with Smart and another woman. It was very damning, but it became a creative writing/listening exercise. In the end, it was interesting and made me want to better understand what has happened since 2014. She still remains behind bars. She has exhausted all forms of appeal. Now she appeals to the same media attention that helped convict her in the first place.

Note, Billy Flynn was granted parole after 25 years in prison.

https://www.wmur.com/article/billy-flynn-granted-parole-25-years-after-killing-gregg-smart/5198419#

Post Oscar musings (March 4th 2019)

First off, congratulations go out to Alison once again as our Three-peat Officepool winner of the pool. She consistently can out pick and guess the rest of us. I thank everyone who took the time to join and have (hopefully) some fun with the choices.

On to the awards itself, I have to say that I liked that there wasn’t a host. From the beginning we had a good start with no hosts and just presenters. I honestly didn’t see a great deal of the presentations live as I was out with hockey. So I saw Best Supporting Actress given out (Regina King) which I felt was very deserving, even though I had not see the film. I picked it up with Best Actress and like the rest of the world, and winner Olivia Colman herself, was the most shocked and surprised with Glenn Close clapping along with everyone else for The Favourite performance. Wow!

I really felt Richard E Grant should have won, but I am not upset with two-time winner, Mahershala Ali. I was thrilled Roma didn’t win Best Picture. I shrugged my shoulders at Best Director and was pleased with The Green Book. The Green book was the TIFF People’s Choice Award this year, and it was a feel-good story. It is a little campy. But it had good performances and a good message. So that’s fine. There are other years that I cannot believe what was selected. In the end, it doesn’t matter. The public will decide which films endure and which they want to see year after year. So while a Winner like Shakespeare in Love is a footnote to the Harvey Weinstein story, Saving Private Ryan lives on and is remembered as the true gem. As an artist, isn’t that really what you want out of your art?

Generally the fashion was okay, with some notable surprises like Rachel Weisz wearing some ridiculous rubber piece around her shoulders. Others were looking very frumpy, say Maya Rudolph. The men tend to wear these suits that all look a size or two too small. Whatever. But we move along and hope that the 2019 films provide a greater pool from which to decide. Happy movie viewing. In short 2018 were no where as good as 2017.

Oscar Week Begins

Things are getting ramped up in LA in preparation for the Oscars on Sunday night. I can’t think of a year where I have struggled so mightily with the Best Picture as this year. For certain I have had questions about the ultimate selection of which film was selected in years past, but in my own head I had a pretty good idea of the Best Film (last year I felt that Dunkirk was best and Three Billboards was a close second). Incidentally having recently watched the Extras in the Blu-Ray for Dunkirk, and what they did to get this on film, I reaffirm my conviction on that.

RDM Oscar

Here is me at Warner Bros Studios Tour with an actual Oscar in my hand (it’s heavier than you think).

As for those those Best Picture nominees, the only film at this point I have not seen is Vice. That needs to be done this week. It also addresses Best Actor (Bale), Best Supporting Actor (Rockwell) and Supporting Actress nominations (Adams). If I do that, I have seen all Best Actor nominees (save Willem Dafoe which I dearly want to see) and all Best Actress nominees, plus Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (save Regina King). I will set up my OfficePools Oscar contest and send out to those who received last year. If you didn’t receive and want to participate, send me a line. It costs nothing, and you only get respect from those who you better (Alison is our reigning Queen of the Oscars for back to back years). Can she three-peat?? We’ll find out on Sunday, or perhaps not if she doesn’t find a wifi spot on the beach!! Stay tuned. Enjoy the Oscars and happy picking!!

Or if you choose to be proactive and participate on your own, you can join here:

http://www.officepools.com/invite/pickem/m/HYRJLD9G